This invention relates generally to bale wagons for forming a stack of crop material bales, and specifically to an improved bale-receiving means for controlling the positional attitude of bales in the finished stack.
It is accepted present day practice to form bales of crop material such as hay or the like into stacks through the employment of an automatic bale wagon. One type of bale wagon which has achieved wide-spread commercial acceptance is the automatic bale wagon which employs the three table concept, as originally illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,848,172 which issued to Gordon E. Grey.
The Grey bale wagon includes a first table which successively receives bales from a bale loader or pickup on the wagon and accumulates a predetermined number of them, for example two, being arranged end-to-end in a row, a second table or bale-supporting means which successively receives the accumulated rows of bales from the first table and accumulates a plurality of them, such as four, five or six rows, which plurality of rows is commonly called a tier of bales, and a third table or load bed which successively receives the tiers from the second table and accumulates the plurality of tiers, for example seven, to form a stack thereon. Once the stack has been accumulated on the load bed, it may be unloaded by pivoting the load bed 90 degrees and depositing the stack on the ground with the first tier of bales which was previously accumulated on the second table now being the lowermost tier of the stack in contact with the ground surface.
Since the stack formed by the bale wagon and deposited on the ground at a storage location may remain there for an extended period of time, it is desirable that the bales forming the lowermost tier be oriented such that a non-twine or -wire bearing side of each bale, commonly referred to as an "edge" side of a bale, is in contact with the ground in order to avoid wire rusting or twine rotting which eventually would result in broken bales in the lowermost tier and probable toppling of the stack.
To provide the aforementioned desired orientation of the bales of the lowermost tier of the stack, the operations which have heretofore been performed in picking up and forming bales into each of the tiers of the stack by the bale wagon are as follows. First, bales deposited on one of their edge sides in a field by a baler are picked up by the bale wagon loader and moved through a 90 degree lateral path to the first table where they are supported on one of their twine or wire bearing sides, commonly referred to as a "flat" side of the bale. Then, the first table is pivotally moved so as to lift and revolve the bales approximately 90 degrees and deposit them on the second table of the wagon in the same desired edge orientation as they will appear when subsequently transferred in stack form by the load bed of the wagon to the ground.
In order to enhance the stability of the stack, it is generally desirable to provide one or more tied tiers within the stack, such being tiers having individual bales arranged to overlap two bales in adjacent tiers above and below the tie tier. Formation of one or more tie tiers can be accomplished during formation of the stack on the bale wagon, for example, through utilization of mechanisms similar to those illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,395,814 which have been incorporated into several present day commercial models of the Grey bale wagon.
Overall, the stacks of bales formed by many current models of Grey bale wagon, wherein all the bales are oriented on their edge sides, have satisfactory stability. However, with respect to stacks which must conform to certain legal width restrictions in order for transport on public highways by trucks and are formed of bales having certain size dimensions, it has been found more desirable to orient the bales of all the tiers of the stacks, including the tie tiers, but excluding the lowermost tier, on the flat sides. For example, in the case of bales having the approximate size dimensions of 16 inches (edge side width).times.23 inches (flat side width).times.46 inches (length) being most prevalent in the southwestern region of the United States, bales oriented on their flat (23 inches wide) sides each cover a surface area having a length approximately twice that of its width and thus may be formed by some current Grey bale wagon models and compact, square tie tier patterns utilizing a tie mechanism similar to that disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,395,814, as well as a compact and square standard tier pattern, if such current models were adapted to pick up bales laying on their flat sides in the field. Standard and tie tiers having such a compact and square configuration would form a block-stack which conforms to the legal width and tier pattern restrictions for public highway transportation.
As mentioned, many models of the Grey bale wagon pick up and form a stack of bales which have been deposited on edge on the ground by a baler. While this is the prevailing approach, it does have disadvantages which come to the fore under certain operating conditons. More specifically, under hilly conditions, edge dropped bales have a tendency to roll over onto a flat side and thus hinder efficient stacking by a bale wagon. Though substantially any Grey-type wagon could be modified to pick up bales on the flat, such is not normally done because most models do not have the capacity of selectively depositing bales onto the second table in either one of an edge side or a flat side orientation, and thus could not produce a stack with the bottom tier on edge as described above.
The first table mechanism described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,923,176 allows for the versatility mentioned immediately above. Bales may be transferred from the first table to the second table either on edge or on the flat, depending upon what type of tier is being formed.
The invention to be described below results in the same versatility provided by the apparatus disclosed in the 3,923,176 patent; however, it does so with a more simple and reliable structure.